Suddenly he determined to give her a kiss. Never mind the consequences. He would risk the proving that he was not a gentleman. As far as that went, had he not sufficiently attested the fact already? Yes, that was just the secret of the whole affair. And this impudent “solicitor’s daughter” stunt was her way of letting him know it. He began to understand the deadly resentment of Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson and dear Dolores.
If ever a girl did deserve to be taken down a peg! Still at the very last moment, he learned that it was not so easy for George Norris to play the cad. He had a desire to press the very life out of this splendid little beast. The mere look of her was a challenge and a defiance, but he was bound to remember that she was a dependent in the house, very much the underdog, without a means of defending herself. No, whatever her deserts, it could hardly be called cricket....
With a start he grew aware that those curious eyes were fixed steadily upon his own; they might even be said to look right through them. He had just time to catch the faintly perceptible curl of a scornful lip, when without warning the door behind him opened. Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson came magnificently in, a figure of avenging fate in black satin and jet embroidery.
George Norris was still seated on the table and Miss Cass in a low chair of decrepit wicker work, was looking up at him with a smile of challenge in her eyes.
“So here you are, George.” The overtones of Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson’s voice had more resonance than beauty. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. We are going to have a little music.”
“So sorry.” George was not impenitent. “But I just came out you know to smoke a cigarette.”
“Yes, you said so.” It was evidently not the remark Mrs. Trenchard-Simpson wanted to make, yet a gathering frown declared that becoming words refused to occur to her at the moment. As an alternative, she turned frigidly to the governess.
“Have you darned the children’s socks, Miss Cass?” The answer was a cheerful affirmative.
“Then, as coal and electric lights are rationed, perhaps you will not mind going to bed.”
Miss Cass said, with a smile whose candor seemed to add to its intensity, that she would not mind at all.